Obama and Black English in the NY Times

[Jonathan Lighter]

Why call it "signifying" instead of "sarcastic understatement"?
Because the authors want to show how delightfully exotic Black English is.
The President's English isn't very exotic, as far as I can tell, and since
it's  fifty years since "I have a dream," his delivery isn't either, except
by Romney standards. (Of course, I'm long past the point where I think of
any English at all as "delightful," so pay no attention.)

I'm not sure the Prez actually said, "Nah, we straight!" and not "Nah,
we're straight!"  To my ear it could have been either. Maybe "straight" in
this sense (not precisely "OK" but "even") really is overwhelmingly AAVE.
But my grandfather said "Nah!" every day of his life, as do I. (Perhaps our
vowel is too much like that in "gnat" to count.)

"Some African-American critics have strongly objected to Mr. Obama’s use in
the public sphere of phrases deemed to be part of black private
discourses."  Like what?  Surely not "We straight"? And why object, esp.
"strongly"? This could be the most interesting statement in the piece. I
wish it had been elaborated.

But specialists aren't the intended audience, and newspaper essays on
language rarely satisfy; so let ten thousand flowers bloom. It was a
diverting read.

JL

On Mon, Sep 10, 2012 at 1:34 PM, David A. Daniel <dad at pokerwiz.com> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "David A. Daniel" <dad at POKERWIZ.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Obama and Black English in the NY Times
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Very interesting article. But the link below doesn't work, or at least
> didn't for me. Here's one that does.
> http://tinyurl.com/92hbq2m
>
>
>
>
> Poster:       Margaret Lee <mlee303 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Obama and Black English in the NY Times
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---
>
> A very interesting article.=0A=A0=0A--Margaret Lee=0A =0A----- Forwarded
> Me=
> ssage -----=0AFrom: Margot Lee Shetterly <margot at pipeline.com>=0ATo: Mom
> <m=
> lee303 at yahoo.com> =0ASent: Monday, September 10, 2012 10:18 AM=0ASubject:
> O=
> bama and Black English in the NY Times=0A  =0AIn the New York
> Times=0A=0Aht=
> tp://
> www.nytimes.com/2012/09/09/opinion/sunday/obama-and-the-racial-politic=
> s-of-american-english.html?_r=3D1&pagewanted=3Dall<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/09/opinion/sunday/obama-and-the-racial-politic=s-of-american-english.html?_r=3D1&pagewanted=3Dall>
>
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